Vijayanagara Empire Founded
Harihara and Bukka founded Vijayanagara on the Tungabhadra in 1336, and it held southern India against Muslim expansion for two centuries. They had been officials of the Kakatiya kingdom of Warangal, captured when Muhammad bin Tughlaq destroyed it. The traditional account has them taken to Delhi, converted to Islam, sent south as governors, and reverting to Hinduism under the sage Vidyaranya — a story that appears in later sources and is disputed. What is certain is the timing. Tughlaq's authority in the Deccan collapsed almost immediately, and the Bahmani Sultanate emerged in the north of it at the same moment; Vijayanagara became the barrier between the sultanates and the Hindu south, and the two fought almost continuously for two hundred years. The city itself was built among enormous granite outcrops that made it defensible, with an irrigation system of canals and tanks that supported a population contemporary visitors estimated at several hundred thousand. Portuguese and Persian travellers described it as among the largest and richest cities in the world — Domingo Paes wrote that it was as large as Rome and the best-provided city in existence. Its wealth came from cotton and spice exports, from control of the Deccan's diamond mines, and from the horse trade with Arabia that its rulers paid extraordinary prices to monopolise. Krishnadevaraya, who ruled from 1509, is its high point. A coalition of sultanates destroyed the army at Talikota in 1565 and sacked the city for months. The ruins at Hampi are a World Heritage Site. Its ruins cover some twenty-six square kilometres, and the temple at Virupaksha has been in continuous worship since before the empire existed.
- Year: 1336 CE
- Category: Empire
